photo by bachmont
by :: Anamaria
A few weeks ago a colleague asked if she could interview me for a grad school project (she is getting a Master’s in International Education).
There was only one interview question: Who was your favorite teacher and why?
At first, the question did not seem to be very difficult. Since I have been in the U.S., I have witnessed many conversations on this topic. Many of my American friends like to reminisce about their favorite teachers. So when I heard about my colleague’s project, I thought oh, easy, I can answer that!
But then I started thinking about it. And I couldn’t come up with a favorite teacher.
Talking about your favorite teacher is a conversation that I never heard or was part of before coming to the U.S.
In Romania, my friends and I never talked about it. Many of my American friends did, though. Why? Could it have anything to do with culture? I think it does.
When I went to school in Romania, the educational system was very formal, and the power distance between teachers and students was huge! The teacher was a guru, whose role in the classroom was to transfer personal and professional wisdom. The teacher was not there to be the students’ friend. As such, the closest that a student could get to having a favorite teacher was defined in terms of how much the student respected the teacher.
In other words, there were teachers I highly respected, but I wouldn’t single them out as my favorite teachers. I didn’t think in terms of favorite. From my conversations with my American friends, I believe that a “favorite teacher” in the U.S. is somebody who breaks some rules, in favor of students, who takes a close interest in the academic performance of a student, or who is willing to help the student with a personal matter.
For instance, an American friend told me that her favorite teacher was a woman who trusted her students enough to leave it up to them to decide whether or not they needed to do their homework, depending on how well they thought they understood the concepts taught in class.
When I went to school in Romania, the relationship between a teacher and students was so formal that this left little to no room for any other feelings towards teachers except for feelings of respect.
In high power distance classrooms, such as they were when I went to school in Romania (my understanding is that this distance has decreased since then), the level or respect for a teacher was sometimes so high, that students would often feel intimidated by that teacher. The idea of feeling intimidated by a teacher is not part of any conversation that I heard in the U.S. about somebody’s favorite teacher.
A favorite teacher, for my American friends, does exactly the opposite: that teacher is able to get close enough to his or her students that feelings of friendship develop, rather than of intimidation. A favorite teacher is somebody one respects. But a favorite teacher is above all someone who has managed to get to know their students on a much more personal level. Somebody who takes an interest in their students’ interests, and uses this knowledge in their teaching.
The reason why I don’t have a favorite teacher is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and I would be very curious to know what you think about this subject.
Do you have a favorite teacher? Why was that person your favorite?
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I have written an essay about a teacher-student relationship which includes favoritism. For me, a favorite teacher is something you are close with. You shared personal experiences, go out together or something like he became your favorite teacher because you like him as a teacher: they way he handled his class, the way he explained the topic, his attitudes towards you and the entire students, the way he talked, and etc.